Veridican doesn't matter. Becoming Christ matters. A Hindu who comes to see that his or her purpose is to be the consciousness of...Brahman...in the world, has become Christ. He may not know who Jesus was. He may never have read any of the Gospel, but he has done what God wanted him to do.

We have been given Jesus Christ. So we have an example to follow that the Hindu I mentioned does not. We are blessed that way.

Ancient Christians may never come to understand what New Christians of this generation understand, but they haven't rejected Christ. They are like the thief on the cross next to Jesus. They don't know they are supposed to become Christ, but they know that who they are is not sufficient. They know they must be reborn--even if they don't exactly understand what they are reborn into.

Even Veridicans only begin the process here in this life. They may come to realize that Christ called them to be one with him, and they may want it, and they take communion and try to believe it, but they never come to the point where they can say, "I am definitely the consciousness of God from within His creation." But they want to believe it.

All of that is enough. Because all of the real transformation takes place in Paradise. In fact, it can only take place in Paradise. It begins here, but Paradise is the place where one has the powers of a god. And you kind of have to have that in order to really spread your wings and fly--like in a lucid dream.

If an Ancient Christian is doing the best he can with a true heart. If the Hindu or Zen Buddhist is doing the best they can with true hearts--they will be with Jesus in Paradise, and they will move forward.

But those who know and reject out of an ugly heart--they take the fast track to hell.

I suppose I pick on Christianity more than the other religions because I was
brought up in it. If I knew more about Islam, Judaism and Hinduism I’m sure I
would lambaste them more so forgive me for showing any favoritism.

We’ve been traveling a lot lately; we spent nearly a month in Indonesia (most
populous Islamic country in the world, the one exception within the country is
the island of Bali which is mostly Hindu) and even more recently traveled to
Colombia as well. On both trips I have taken many photographs of children and
that brings me to today’s rambling about who knows what and when and who gets
to go to Heaven and who gets to go to Purgatory or Hell. I would like to
understand the Rule Book on how God parcels these things out. If I listen to
the Christians the Bible says, “the only way to the Father is through Me” (JC).
Most everyone I talk to takes this to mean that unless you know of Him and have
accepted Him in your mind as TOTG (The One True God) you’re SOOL (Shit Out Of
Luck). I think this applies to Islam as well but they replace JC with Muhammad
(as prophet only and not TSOG, The Son of God). The Jews just skip the middle-man
altogether and go straight to the Source until the day they are convinced the
real Messiah shows up through the proper gate this time bearing favorable rates
or something like that.

Back to the children and my original thought; so JC shows up in one little town and
roams around the countryside laying down the law. This law is to be applied to
everyone evenly from here on out (what happened to all the humans who preceded
Him is another story). There is no internet, cell phones, TV, mail, loudspeakers
or the like so it takes many generations for the Word to get around and reach
some of the now seven billion plus people in the world. I use the word “some”
because I can assure you that most of these kids I have been photographing in
far-flung islands and deep jungle don’t have a clue what the hell we’re talking
about (cue the missionaries).

This is why I was trying to make sense of the Rule Book.
What happened or happens to all the people who didn’t get the memo?

Like:
1) Those that came before the memo was issued 2) those that were contemporaries
but didn’t live within a couple of donkey rides from the memo writer 3) those
that came after but never got the memo 4) those that got the memo at the point
of a sword 5) those that got a garbled memo and couldn’t make heads or tails of
it 6) those that got the memo but thought it was a joke 7) those that had
already received previous memos that conflict with the new one and 8) those
that were/are not capable of deciphering or understanding the memo.

If I am to believe what the Bible says there are a lot of people, including these
children I have been photographing, that are in deep doo-doo. Personally, I
just don’t buy it. Whoever has been tweaking this memorandum all these years
has yet to tie up all the loose ends to this fanciful tale. There are just so
many holes in it that if people weren’t so superstitious or scared they would
file this one away in the drama/fiction/horror heading at Barnes & Noble
bookstore and give it no more weight than a second rate novel.

(previously written original, unpublished material that I think apropos as a response)

“I am quite sure now that often, very often, in matters concerning religion and politics a man’s reasoning powers are not above the monkey’s.”~Mark Twain
“Ocean: A body of water occupying about two-thirds of a world made for man - who has no gills.”~ Ambrose Bierce

(02-03-2013 02:55 AM)Egor Wrote: Veridican doesn't matter. Becoming Christ matters. A Hindu who comes to see that his or her purpose is to be the consciousness of...Brahman...in the world, has become Christ. He may not know who Jesus was. He may never have read any of the Gospel, but he has done what God wanted him to do.

Then why bother making your own church? (Rhetorical, I don't care)

(02-03-2013 02:55 AM)Egor Wrote: Ancient Christians may never come to understand what New Christians of this generation understand, but they haven't rejected Christ. They are like the thief on the cross next to Jesus. They don't know they are supposed to become Christ, but they know that who they are is not sufficient. They know they must be reborn--even if they don't exactly understand what they are reborn into.

Yes Egor, everyone does stupid things. People make mistakes, that's what life is like. No one goes their entire life without making mistakes (don't even try to say Jesus did cause that's a joke). People do crummy things, this doesn't mean we need to invent or accept someone elses invented ascended being to become more like them. We just need to do the best we can to be the best person we can be, without the delusions.

(02-03-2013 02:55 AM)Egor Wrote: All of that is enough. Because all of the real transformation takes place in Paradise. In fact, it can only take place in Paradise. It begins here, but Paradise is the place where one has the powers of a god. And you kind of have to have that in order to really spread your wings and fly--like in a lucid dream.

And if this paradise doesn't exist? Then you wasted your life, completely confused about the nature of reality when you could be using your time here to explore reality. Man, that would suck.

(02-03-2013 02:55 AM)Egor Wrote: But those who know and reject out of an ugly heart--they take the fast track to hell.

How about those that reject because the story is entirely flawed? An all loving (or all good) god that has a plan, knowing his 'evidence' won't sway the skeptics, knowing they will be sent to a place to be tortured for eternity. Yet he does nothing, just sits back and watches. Sorry, can't buy that load of crap. If your going to invent a religion, I recommend making a god that isn't full of contradictions. Or you could just be rational, and stop wasting your time.

The greateast thing about this religion will come when you are preaching to other believers and they start asking questions like:

"Who are you to decide which books go on the bible?"
"Who are you to translate the words of the gospels and how do you know that you didn't make mistakes?"
"Do you have any evidence that your interpretation is correct?"

Sweet Sweet Irony. As a matter of fact i don't think that's what irony means but i don't know the word i'm looking for here. Any help?

(02-03-2013 09:14 AM)Techgorilla Wrote: The greateast thing about this religion will come when you are preaching to other believers and they start asking questions like:

"Who are you to decide which books go on the bible?"
"Who are you to translate the words of the gospels and how do you know that you didn't make mistakes?"
"Do you have any evidence that your interpretation is correct?"

Sweet Sweet Irony. As a matter of fact i don't think that's what irony means but i don't know the word i'm looking for here. Any help?

Irony
-The expression of one's meaning by using language that normally signifies the opposite, typically for humorous or emphatic effect.

Ex: Watching a horde of angry Christians chase off Egor after he crashed into their church unannounced, letting the theists take out the theistic trash for us, would be very ironic.

Schadenfreude
-Pleasure derived by someone from another person's misfortune.

Ex: Gabbing pizza, beer, and lawn chains to watch aforementioned attempted lynching of Egor; all the while taking bets on who manages to tackle him first.